From everything I've heard, the non DoD departments are total and utter shite shows. Anyone not a white male who doesn't want to do work and gets put up for discipline or a letter in their file (must document poor performance to fire with cause), immediately screams EEO and because this is the government and we are required to actually follow procedures on this, it gets bogged down and 50/50 the discipline holds.

I would love nothing more than a flamethrower and machete and access to the OPM offices. However for anything to change it's going to have to come from on high... Senior appointed officials and elected officials. Uncle Barry isn't going to do anything, and the Republicans in Congress have yet to show that they can get out of their own way. If you want something to happen, make noise to your elected officials.. they need to take action to reduce the size of government both in the civilian workforce and in entitlements, specifically the cost of providing medicine.

re: Federal employees whining--(Posted by DevilDogTiger on 3/1/13 at 3:02 pm to SM6)

quote:immediately screams EEO and because this is the government and we are required to actually follow procedures on this, it gets bogged down and 50/50 the discipline holds.

Sadly I see this all the time. It is nearly impossible to fire an incompetent employee if they are a female or a minority (god forbid if they are both). The EEO card gets played and they receive a transfer to where every the frick they want. They worst thing that can happen to you is to be labeled a racist so people bend over backwards. As a white male I already have two strikes against me.

ETA: it sucks knowing I will never get promoted as long as there is some female in the agency that is competing for the same position.

While this is all true, and regrettable, it doesn't mean that there aren't hundreds of thousands of hardworking federal civil servants who will be hurt by this action, and, for the brave private sector warriors on here, God forbid we have another hurricane/natural disaster and you're looking for your Road Home gubment check. Depends on whose ox is being gored, eh?

quote:He worked for an airline, a private sector job, before getting involved with the FAA. He started out making around $15,000-$17,000 a year in 1984 and now makes well over $100,000. But because he did that in the public sector he's a drain on society.

Civil service was not supposed to be high paying jobs, that is why the pensions and benefits are so great. That was supposed to supliment the lower salary. Currently a civil service employee makes on average more than the private sector employee with 100 x better benefits. This is what most of the like minded people have a problem with.

quote:Civilservicewasnot supposed to behigh paying jobs, thatiswhy the pensions and benefits are so great. That was supposed to supliment thelower salary. Currently a civil service employee makes on average more than the private sector employee with 100 x better benefits. Thisis what most of the like minded people have a problem with.

quote:My father is a Federal employee. He started with next to nothing in terms of salary almost 30 years ago. For nearly 30 years he worked his arse off and rose through the ranks. He wasn't an arse kisser, he didn't talk his way into promotions, he worked his way into them. Now he brings home six figures. Yeah...he didn't do it in the private sector, but how is what he did and what he went through any different from what an ordinary Joe does out there in a non-government job?

quote:My bro in law is a government worker and this is going to effect him, probably significantly. But after years of watching the way these government departments have been run, I'm torn on how I feel about it. If that place was a private company they would have gone under in the first year. n

His dad would have most probably been "fired" along time ago in the real world. It common knowledge that it virtually impossible to lose a fed job, yet private sector will get whacked.....er..restructured at the first sign inefficiency.

Again...a fed employee's definition of hard times is not working once day a pay period.

Example: Why won't the Feds just whack some head count and take out the payroll expense to make up the "sequester" and also save the cost associated with benefits. That's how you do it in the real world.

quote:Currently a civil service employee makes on average more than the private sector employee with 100 x better benefits.

I couldn't care less.

quote:This is what most of the like minded people have a problem with.

Tough shite. My father entered the civil service at a time when pay was low and benefits were not that great compared to what they are today. He liked the job security, however, and decided for that reason to make it his career.

You don't like it? Tough. My dad has pulled his weight just as much as any man and has earned the position he is presently in. Like many of you, he doesn't like how bloated the government has gotten and really would like to do something about bad employees who continue to hold jobs in the civil service. He doesn't like how the government uses federal workers as pawns anytime there are spending cuts, thus turning him and others like him into whipping boys for average Americans.

re: Federal employees whining--(Posted by LSUwag on 3/1/13 at 4:18 pm to I B Freeman)

This Federal employee believes that the forced cuts are long overdue. Unfortunately, Congress and our President couldn't do them in a responsible way so now, everybody (except them) are going to have to suffer.

Agan, this is long over due.

This thread has a lot of bashing of Federal employees. There certainly are those who don't do jack shite however, the vast majority of us work our asses off and consider it a privilege to serve our nation. I totally agree that Affirmative Action has done more damage to the government than any other program.

In terms of making salary comparisons to private sector jobs, a lot of this data is complete B.S because many government jobs simply don't exist in the private sector. Mine included. Also, comparing benefits is a problem as well. They will always cite CSRS employees but, they are dwindling in numbers as they retire off. Anybody hired in the past 25 or so years have nowhere near the benefits of CSRS employees.

quote:. It common knowledge that it virtually impossible to lose a fed job

you can get fired pretty easy just the process of firing a federal employee is not as cut and dry as in the private sector. My mom worked in HR and they fired people all the time. Issue is though some people would get fired from that agency and in their process of fighting it get sent to another ones to be someone other agencies problem.

quote:His dad would have most probably been "fired" along time ago in the real world.

You know precisely dick about my dad. I may be a biased source in this matter but I know for a fact he is one of the better government employees.

quote:Again...a fed employee's definition of hard times is not working once day a pay period.

Once again...you don't know shite. Dad almost lost his federal retirement account when the government privatized flight service back in '04. Had he not found another job within the FAA all of that money he had accumulated from 1984-2004 would have been wiped out and he would have had to start all over again. You can say "cry me a river" all you want to but this is his life, his career, and he's worked awfully hard and sacrificed a lot to make sure my family and I were well off.

But you don't see that, Crow Pie, you just see a federal employee and automatically think "waste of money." That's fine. I'm not going to try to influence your opinion one way or another, but not everything is black and white and you sure as hell don't know every fricking thing.